A spokeswoman for the Central Iowa VA insists a veteran’s address change to “Coo-Coo Lane” wasn’t “intentional.”
Gabriel Florido is a decorated Vietnam veteran and has been receiving treatment from the VA for PTSD for years.
“I don’t understand it. I’m hurt, depressed,” Florido tells the World-Herald. “I don’t know how long I was a joke for them.”
Florido says he’s been receiving medications by mail “for years” from the VA before the mailing address somehow changed.
When he finally received the package, he attempted to call the hospital for answers, saying he was humiliated.
He says no one from the VA has ever apologized or explained how or why the change occurred.
Hospital administrators tell the paper the mistake is the result of “a new employee was being trained to use the agency’s database.”
“Central Iowa VA spokeswoman Kristi Catrenich called the error ‘unfortunate,’ but said it was ‘neither intentional nor malicious,’” Fox News reports.
Florido says he was engaged in numerous incidents while serving in Vietnam, including taking friendly fire.
He suffered serious injuries after being hit by an enemy’s grenade, suffering wounds to his legs and groin. Later, he suffered a concussion so severe, “his ears bled.”
He was honorably discharged in 1970, returning home with a “Purple Heart, a combat action ribbon, a South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry,” the paper reports.
“It’s been 45 years since the war is over, and I’m still fighting it up here,” he says, referring to his head.
As for the treatment from the VA, “It’s like they’re spitting in my face,” Florido believes.
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